Solano Residents Can Get Free Tax Help; Here's How

Free tax assistance will be available to Solano County residents making less than $51,000 this year. A kick-off event for the program will be held at the Vacaville Library later this month. 

The Children's Network will partner with United Way of the Bay Area and the IRS to offer the service. The kick-off event will be on Jan. 24, starting at 1 p.m. The Vacaville Public Library is located at 1020 Ulatis Drive.

Here are some details about the free service: 

This year’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (also known as VITA) eligibility guidelines limit service through EARN IT! KEEP IT! SAVE IT!  to taxpayers making no more than $51,000. Those with an adjusted gross income of $57,000 or less can take advantage of a new facilitated self-assistance program, allowing qualified taxpayers to file for free electronically.

“We are excited to get the word out to everyone that we’re here, and we’re ready to serve the public all across Solano County,” Mr. Gong said. “We are expanding the number of sites open this year and broadening our program to include more ways of preparing your taxes for free, ranging from traditional sit-down tax preparation with a trained volunteer to options that allow taxpayers to electronically file their taxes on their own with advice from our team.”

EARN IT! KEEP IT! SAVE IT!  Solano is also piloting a new type of tax site for taxpayers in Vacaville who have not been able to take advantage of these services in the past due to schedule conflicts. Virtual VITA volunteers at the Cultural Center Library branch perform the initial screening of taxpayers, securely deliver the paperwork to a site that have the capacity to prepare the return, and a certified preparer will schedule a phone call with the tax client to complete the return. Coalition staffers hope that this will be the flexibility that they need to accommodate a whole new population of taxpayers who may have otherwise incurred the added expense of using a paid preparer.

Members of the public are invited to hear more about this program from local officials, volunteers, clients, and site coordinators at a kick-off event at the Vacaville Public Library – Cultural Center (1020 Ulatis Drive, Vacaville) on January 24^th at 1PM.

Persons interested in finding an EARN IT! KEEP IT! SAVE IT!  tax site in Solano County near them should call 211 for more information. They can also visit the EARN IT! KEEP IT! SAVE IT!  website at www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org for information about local and regional efforts.

Last year, the EARN IT! KEEP IT! SAVE IT! Campaign in Solano County had one hundred twenty nine (129) volunteers that helped file 3,772 returns at sixteen (16) tax assistance sites, which resulted in a total of over $3.8 million dollars in refunds to low-income taxpayers in Solano County.